French Hostages Return From Lebanon

PARIS--An 85-year-old retired car dealer and a businessman freed in Lebanon by Shiite Moslem kidnappers arrived home in France yesterday, and were greeted by Premier Jacques Chirac.

Chirac thanked Syria, Saudia Arabia and Algeria for helping to arrange the release of the captives.

Camille Sontag and Marcel Coudari, 54, were released in Moslem west Beirut on Monday night to Syrian army officers, government sources said. They were taken to the Syrian capital, Damascus, where they were turned over to French envoys.

The two Frenchmen were driven to Damascus during the night and given clean clothes and a bath at a government facility. They arrived early yesterday at the Foreign Ministry, where they remaied for more than an hour in an anteroom.

Sontag, who lived in Beirut for 40 years, sat quietly, saying nothing and slowly wringing his hads on his lap. He appeared well, but confused.

He wore a gray suit and had an unkempt beard. He said his kidnappers had broken his hearing aid when he was seized in a west Beirut street May 7 and he could not hear well.

Never to Return

Asked if he intended to go back to Beirut, Sontag said loudly: "Me? Me? Never!"

Coudari, missing since February, chain-smoked American cigarettes, talking constantly in Arabic with Syrian officials.

"It was very scary," he said. "I was frightened a lot of the time." He said both he and Sontag were treated "very well" by their captors.

He added: "Syria did everything for me and I'm very grateful."

In Paris, the French government also thanked Syria.

"The government, which rejoices very greatly over this happy outcome and thanks the Syrian authorities for the part they have played in it, continues the effort it has undertaken since its formation with a view to the quickest possible release of our other countrymen still detained," the French Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Seventeen foreigners, including six Americans, remain missing in Lebanon and various groups have claimed responsibility for the abductions.

Swarmed

Coudari and Sontag appeared shaken when a swarm of photographers and television crews stampeded into a chandeliered room in the Foreign Ministry during the ceremonies in which they were turned over to French diplomats. The crush sent security men scurrying to save valuable vases.

When some calm was restored, Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa said: "We've done everything we could do to get the release of the hostages and will continue to do so."